the hero is the gun...

[Drake]

I love the people that want to legalize drugs. How could a police officer be able to determine how "high" they were? "No sir, I've only had one joint tonight. I'm good to go!"

Drugs is the worst thing on earth. With the money the goverment has spent on the "war aganist drugs" we could have burned every pot field in the world.

I wouldn't say those two guys won't be missed, but think of what a great life they could have had, if they had not gotten high one afternoon and played with a gun.

its not that simple. i don't think drugs should be legalized, but i do think pot should be decriminalized. i think dealers should still be dealt with the same, but i don't think that people should be spending time in jail for a joint. but if a guy's trespassing while smoking it, take him to jail. if he's driving, take him to jail. if he walking down the street, call him an idiot and write him big ticket. just my $.02.

[Kayakinboy]

but it's that thin line, where would you draw the line in the sand. The bigger the lane, the easier it is to convict.

In a world full of bourbon and cigars, who the hell would ever wanna do drugs?

[Jonsey5484]

Bottom line is drugs make you do stupid things. I hate people who say "Marijauna is a harmless drug." It is fairly harmless when you smoke one joint at home, eat some food, and pass out. But after people smoke pot, they suddenly have the urge to do things stupid. My ex-girlfriends brother smokes pot on a daily basis. He would smoke pot three times a day. Once before school, once after school, and once more before he went to bed. I have seen him high driving a vehicle. I saw him swerve at people running or biking on the side of the road. He swerved and almost hit a Drivers Ed car head on. Pot gives you a feeling of invisibility.

It's not just marijauna:

People are stupid when they abuse any drug. I was at the pharmacy the other day. I needed to buy robitussin. I had to ask for it behind the counter from the pharmacist. How sad is that? Kids are drinking whole bottles of this stuff to alter their mind. I can't even stand drinking 2 tablespoons of that shit! You can't even buy anything with antihistamine without asking the pharmacist.

Over the weekend we had a guy spend the night in ICU because he mixed cocaine, alcohol, and sleeping pills. Once minute he was calm and relaxed, the other swinging punches and cussing us out. We had to have three police officers subdue him so that we could get him in the ambulance. By the time we got him to the rig, he went unresponsive and stopped breathing. So now two of us (my partner and I) had to get two IV's set, push some drugs that will hopefully counteract what he had taken, and breath for him. Not a fun time. Especially since the hospital is a min. 15 drive for us. He is lucky to be alive. We see this kind of stuff on a daily basis. And just not with cocaine. Any abused drug will harm you. So don't tell me that drugs are harmless. Drugs are deadly.

[Jonsey5484]

The driver of this car (Mitsubishi Mirage, in case you could not tell) was high on Marijauna when he decided it would be fun to see how fast his car would go on a back road out in the county. His rate of speed was undetermined, but was estimated at 90+mph when he lost control and rolled it several times before striking a large tree. The driver lived, but the passenger of the car, his best friend was DOA (Dead On Arrival). Now he has to live with that for the rest of his life. All becuase he thought it would be cool to smoke some pot and drive.

[Drake]

alcohol and tobacco are vices as well. my smoking a joint in my apartment is no more harmfull that you drinking some borbon at yours. if we decided to go driving around afterwards, both of us deserve to go to jail. there are irresponsible drinkers and irresponsible pot smokers. just because you know someone who smokes pot everyday who's a idiot, doesn't mean everyone that does is one. the line can be clearly drawn. it has been in some places. in denver, if you're 21 and possess up to an ounce of weed, its a ticket. same with california. if you do something stupid enough, you're going to go to jail. i know, i've been there and i probably deserved it. but, it wasn't the pot that made me do something stupid. it was me deciding to do something stupid. cigarsarge is right about the type of people that smoke pot and hang out in empty apartments and such. but, not everyone that smokes pot fits into that. i've grown up a lot since i was getting in trouble with the law. but, i honestly think i would've been doing the same stupid crap if i hadn't been high. because i was an reckless kid. i grew up. i still smoke pot. you could argue that i'm still being reckless because i'm doing something i know is illegal. but so is purchasing cuban cigars. not that buying cigars is reckless IMO.

[Jonsey5484]

I forgot to add that alcohol is also a drug. I am not saying that all pot smokers are stupid. Drinking and driving is just as stupid as being high and driving. Sitting at home smoking pot and not going anywhere is not that bad. The point I was trying to make there were about the other drugs like cocaine and perscription drugs that when mixed with other things become deadly.

[cigarsarge]

I think I've said it once and I'll say it again...The real problem with marijuana is the black market aspect. It is sold in most crack houses houses I have been to. It's sold where extacy is sold in the upper middle class young adult hangouts. It's sold in your next door neighbors house.

People die just because they are trying to smuggle it to you...Not because they want to do you a favor. They die because of the MONEY they are after. They don't give a crap about you.

IMHO it is morally wrong to participate in an activity that is so closely related to violence and funding organized crime. There are children out there that have no mother or father because they have been killed or incarcerated due to the sale of marijuana and other drugs. There are high level dealers that are rich from someone elses misery. I have witnessed this first hand.

Until society changes it's rules this organized crime will have it's finger in the pie. Should marijuana be legalized? I don't know. Why allow free access to another mind altering substance? On the other hand I like to take a drink from time to time. That definately can alter the mind.

By the way...There is no difference in hanging in a vacant building smoking dope and hanging in a vacant drinking cheap whiskey. People that do that are up to no good. The results are generally the same.

[Drake]

i definitely see what you're saying. i'm not argueing that what i do is 'right.' there's a lot of ways this can go. i could say its the government that is keeping the black market for pot going. but them someone could say, "well, then why don't we legalize all drugs." which is not a good idea. california grows a lot of organic pot for medical purposes. if pot was decriminalized; this could be done everywhere and it could be controlled. the lowlifes that kill people for drug money would still being killing people for money if there were no drugs. people trying to make an easy dishonest buck will always be there.

what you said could easily be said about cuban cigars, though. according the law, we're supporting communism. we can't see what goes on in cuba just as i don't see as well as you do what goes on in the streets pertaining to drug use.

[reaganyouth84]

I agree with sarge. I love alcohol, I won't lie, am I an alcoholic? No, but I just enjoy the finer things in life. In my opinion, marijuana should not be legalized. I've heard every side of the debate, and usually the most common one is, "Well, alcohol is legal, it alters the mind, and it harms people other than the person drinking it." This is true, and I agree, but here is the thing...just because the government says you can do it, doesn't mean its right or safe. I think we all know our government has been wrong PLEANTY of times.

I live in one of the most drug infested places in TN. Pot is the way people get in, then it just advances from there, they have to have something more potent to get their fix. I don't believe alcohol is that way. I had a friend pass away a couple of years ago. Him and a few friends were at his house partying. Well, my friend got choked on his vomit and suffocated. The other kids sat there and watched him die instead of calling the cops or an ambulance because they were stoned. Its just a bad bad deal. Like I said though, just because the government says its ok doesn't make it right.

-Mike